Santa Cruz Scrabble tournament draws friendly competitors

Santa Cruz >> Complex words and high tensions are typical in the Santa Cruz County building, where criminal and civil cases are heard.

But on Saturday, it was a different scene as 18 people came to the basement of the building for the fifth annual Scrabble tournament.

Hosted by the Santa Cruz County Public Law Library, the tournament draws a small but loyal following of players eager to get together in a display of vocabulary.

"I'm a Scrabble fiend," said Carmen Cruit of Santa Cruz. "I play it online and with my sisters when we get together."

Cruit's opponent and friend, Robin Dinino, ultimately won the round with strategy and luck.

Cruit placed an R tile on top of the letters E and X to spell "rex," which Dinino challenged. Cruit withdrew her letter E and Dinino conquered the turn by using the "ex" to spell "hex" and "hefty."

"Intimidation is part of the game," said Cruit, laughing at her joke.

Cruit liked to use longer words so she could play more of the board. One word she was particularly proud of: toucan.

There is strategy to the game, depending on the player and how competitive they are.

Prizes varied from movie certificates, gift cards, board games and, of course, a deluxe version of Scrabble.

Winners were determined based on the most wins and the most points, said Renee Fleming, a law librarian.

As a bonus and in honor of the tournament's location, players were given extra points if they used legal jargon in the tournament, with two Santa Cruz County Superior Court judges and a criminal defense attorney on hand to help.

Usually a game can take more than an hour to complete but the tournament had several 40-minute rounds.

The tournament was held to raise money for the law library and teen peer court, Fleming said.

"The law library is a separate public entity, not part of county or court system," Fleming said. "It's funded mostly by small portion of civil filing fees."

For the most part, the competitors are there for fun, Fleming said. However it's divided into two divisions: competitive and recreational.

The competitive players often played in relative silence while the recreational players chatted among each other.

Sue Sutherlin of Ben Lomond, a veteran of the tournament, opted to play in the recreational division rather than the competitive.

She competed seriously the year before but didn't find it as entertaining.

"It wasn't fun because neither of us was willing to budge and open something up for the other," Sutherlin said.

Over on the recreational division, people are more willing to play bigger words, thereby opening the board up for more words to be played. In the friendlier matches, there's less tension and more space to learn new strategies, she said.

"I'm a good player, but I want to have fun," Sutherlin said.

Her 17-year-old son, Christopher, had fun but also employed some strategies.

"I block the triple-word score and triple-letter score," he said, adding that it was a defensive move.